A planned state Department of Transportation project to repave Jericho Turnpike in New Hyde Park and Floral Park has been expanded to include resurfacing between Herricks Road and Glen Cove Road in Mineola with the aid of state Sen. Jack Martins.
Martins, who previously served as mayor of Mineola, recently negotiated an expanded paving project with the state DOT. The original project would have repaved Jericho from the Queens county line east to Herricks Road.
“It’s going to be a newly paved Jericho Turnpike, and it’s about time,” Martins said recently.
Board members in the Village of Mineola had been lobbying the state DOT to extend the plans for paving beyond Herricks Road.
“We kept pushing,” said Village of Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss, who credited Martins with getting the results the village sought.
The project is expected to be completed this summer, Martins said.
For New Hyde Park, the DOT’s Jericho Turnpike makeover is the prelude to the final phase of that village’s downtown business district upgrade. The DOT will be installing countdown crossing signals for pedestrians.
New Hyde Park Trustee Donald Baribieri said last week the village is still awaiting final approval of its plans for the business district.
Aesthetic improvements are planned to make the area more pedestrian-friendly for shoppers. Plans designed by Saratoga Associates include bulb-outs – rounded corners that would extend slightly into the roadway – to be added at locations yet to be determined, along with installation of solid medians with plantings and access to water sources to maintain the plantings.
Benches will also be installed on sidewalks, which would be paved with the same rustic red brickwork already in place in some sections near the intersection of Jericho Turnpike and Lakeville Road.
Work on the project, including the road resurfacing, is expected to take four or five months to complete.
The New Hyde Park project is being funded through a federal transportation appropriation of $1.425 million secured by U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy through community block grant funds.
